26 Responses to Lumen fidei – New Encyclical from Pope Francis

Some of the commentary I’ve seen (no chance to read yet— 88 pages must wait until the kids have clean laundry!) mentions a part near the end about marriage and family that sounds more like Francis than like Benedict. Not that Benedict was pro-gay marriage, but more that he didn’t TALK about marriage as often as Francis does. This is probably a result of Francis really being in the thick of the marriage wars when he was in Argentina.

So, to me, it sounds like more of Benedict outlining the theology and principles of the matter, and Francis showing us how to translate that into concrete action in the world. There’s a reason the Church desperately needs BOTH of these popes.

(Actually, I wonder in BXVI saw this need for someone who could translate theology into action, and if this contributed to his retirement….)

It is a wonderful thing indeed to have Papa Benedict behind you, a pillar of supreme support on which Papa Francis can rely on. I read the news about the two of them in the Vatican Gardens dedicating Vatican City to St. Michael. Wonderful! Now, with the release of this encyclical, I will learn more and be encouraged in my walk of faith after so much bads news of late.

The work of “four Hands” is truly a blessing for the Church and for all peoples. Thank you Holy Spirit for such a gift!

“I am reading Lumen fidei, the new, first encyclical from Pope Francis.”
Look forward to your take on the encyclical, Fr. Z.

It’s wonderful to see a photo of Papa’s Francesco and Emerito together on this important day. Just wondering why they would release the encyclical on the same day they announce the big news about the J23 and JP2 canonizations. It seems that the news of the latter took away attention from the encyclical. But I can’t wait to read this. The Charity and Hope encyclicals were extraordinary.
Deirdre:
It’s funny, because I thought just the opposite…that B16 was more likely to mention marriage, and the way the Church defines the institution.

It seems that Pope Francis has openly acknowledged that this is mostly the work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI:

‘Titled Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), the encyclical is known to have been authored mainly by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who was still working on it at the time of his abdication and it strongly reflects the theological style of Francis’ predecessor. In his introduction, Pope Francis wrote that he merely “added a few contributions of my own.” ‘

“My dear T.S. Eliot, Nietzsche, and Bueber — Bet you never thought you’d be quoted in an encyclical! Please let me know what velocity you reach while rolling over in your graves, so I can pass it on to my bro Benedict! Yours in Christ, FRANCISCUS.”

I probably should add that the encyclical deals with Nietzsche and Dostoevsky’s Prince Myshkin comment as modern arguments that get taken apart. Same thing with the ancient pagan, Celsus. Buber’s is a story taken from a Jewish source, and Eliot just gets quoted for poetry that says something sensible.

Benedict’s quotes always crack me up. Either he’s got a commonplace book of quotes somewhere (or a big index card file) or he’s really good at looking up bits he remembers.

Well the footnotes from Nietzsche, Buber, Wittgenstein, et al. are a bit of a dead giveaway as to the author of those sections. But this paragraph almost sounded like a stringing together of Pope Francis’ tweets for the last two months:

“In union with faith and charity, hope propels us towards a sure future, set against a different horizon with regard to the illusory enticements of the idols of this world yet granting new momentum and strength to our daily lives. Let us refuse to be robbed of hope, or to allow our hope to be dimmed by facile answers and solutions which block our progress, “fragmenting” time and changing it into space. Time is always much greater than space. Space hardens processes, whereas time propels towards the future and encourages us to go forward in hope.”

The Holy Father states in paragraph 7 that this encyclical was based on a first draft done by Benedict to which he added his own thoughts and that he felt it important to finish out Benedict’s two encyclicals on the theological virtues (Caritas in veritate and Spe salvi) with Lumen fidei. Francis seems largely to be putting out Benedict’s encyclical and I am grateful to him for not just putting it in a drawer someplace as he very well could have.

Anna, I think that that was quite deliberate. The encyclical on Faith which emphasizes the constant unchanging relevance of the Light of Christ, written in cooperation by a Pope and his predecessor and the announcement of the canonizations of two Popes of the Vatican II era (who are sometimes erroneously put in opposition to each other)…

Together, they make a clear statement about the nature of the Catholic Faith… It’s continuity and harmony.

The encyclical is addressed to the bishops, priests, deacons, to consecrated persons, and to all the lay faithful de fide, sulla fede. What is that about? I mean, I don’t recall ever seeing that in an encyclical’s address….

It’s not so unusual, in that some encyclicals (perhaps many) are addressed, finally, to “and to all men of good will”.

I’m going to hazard a guess about why Eliot, Nietzsche, Wittegenstein and company are in this — aside from the obvious that Papa Ratzinger does this sort of thing, so it is logical in an encyclical written mostly by him. I heard a rational defense of this practice the other evening, before the release of the encyclical: he’s responding to the vocabulary of those for whom Nietzche and company are required reading.

Lin, last fall there was talk that a new instruction detailing the proper celebration of Mass was to be released this July. I was a bit nervous, but very much hoping that ad orientem, receiving Communion kneeling & on the tongue, proper liturgical music, etc. would be clarified in favor of tradition. Now with Pope Francis at the helm, it seems this project may have been shelved.

This suggests that Pope Franciscus is an effective administrator. Have an unfinished business, finish it and get it out of your desk. The picture of the two popes inaugurating a statue of St. Michael Archangel in the beautiful Vatican gardens was also very encouraging. It suggests Franciscus will not invalidate Benedictus’ Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

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A bit more food for thought…

“Only one sin is nowadays severely punished: the attentive observance of the traditions of our Fathers. For that reason the good ones are thrown out of their places and brought to the desert.”

- Basil of Caesarea - ep. 243

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Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

- St. John Paul II

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"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."

- C.S. Lewis

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More food for thought:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

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"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void."

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Even More Food For Thought

"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests."

Additional Food For Thought

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Food For Thought

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

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